Editor's Note: See this article for information on how to generate your own custom radio frequency interference (rfi) database using the SETIFOX digital signal processing program.

All heterodyne type receivers are subject to various forms of internal and external interference, and the ICOM receivers popular for SETI are no exception. SETI League member Alfred A. Aburto Jr. has tested an ICOM model IC-R7100 reciever to determine its internally generated interference profile.

Al's test was performed by removing the antenna from his receiver, and scanning its entire frequency range (25.000 MHz to 1999.995 MHz) in 5 kHz steps, in USB mode. He recommends that members building SETI stations prepare a similar interference database for any receivers which they might happen to be using, so that signal analysis software can be "trained" to eliminate known interference from consideration.